UN, White House dig in on ClimateGate

After a series of embarrassing e-mails from the East Anglia CRU and the disclosure that the same group of scientists doesn’t have their original source data upon which computer models of anthropogenic global warming are based, the push is on to frame it all as much ado about nothing. Move along, folks, nothing to see here.

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), came out in defense of his advisory body, saying that there are so many contributors to his panel that any individual bias would be meaningless. He also doubted that IPCC’s credibility would be damaged by the whole affair. Hmm, little too late for that, I think.

The White House also came out swinging with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs asserting that “climate change is happening.” In fact, he continued to push the idea that criticism has no scientific basis and that consensus is unanimous, saying, “I don’t think that’s anything that is, quite frankly, among most people, in dispute anymore.” With all due respect, I think Gibbs is grossly misreading the growing level of skepticism among the public to global warming claims.

In reality, though, what else are these folks going to say? With a major climate change summit looming in Copenhagen, the major public figures that have latched onto man-made global warming as a means of effecting political goals aren’t about to back down now. In any event, this is all hardly a “nothing” debate. East Anglia has now promised to release their figures in full, something that you would think responsible scientists would have done from the outset.

All of this skepticism is healthy and quite natural given the widespread and lasting effects climate change legislation would have on economies and lifestyles around the world. These incidents continue to cast a pall of doubt on the science behind global warming. Sure, it might be just one university among many, but the East Anglia CRU is one of the major sources for the IPCC’s conclusions. And if the science was so strong, why fight so hard to keep the source data secret?

It’s not much ado about nothing – it’s major egg on the face of the world’s intelligentsia that has the potential to be one of the biggest scientific scandals of all time.